42Drilling Rig in
the Rumeila Oil Field
Kefla Talib, head of the union for the Iraqi Drilling Company, organized
the workers to keep the US company KBR (a division of Halliburton) from
bringing in foreign crews to rebuild the oil installations after the occupation
began, which would have cost the jobs of thousands of Iraqis. Today he
and his fellow workers are trying to stop the privatization of the oil,
or giving contracts to foreign companies on terms that would cost workers
jobs, and give away the money Iraq need from the oil to rebuild after
two decades of war.